


Postmortem

by oofmilk



Series: Heather Ghost-ler [2]
Category: Heathers: The Musical - Murphy & O'Keefe
Genre: Also who knew ghosts could have crises? certainly not Veronica!, Angst, Canon Compliant, Gen, Ghost Heather Chandler, Ghost Kurt Kelly, Kurt’s only there a little bit dw, Post-Canon, Postmortem angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:54:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22983589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oofmilk/pseuds/oofmilk
Summary: Veronica knew a total of three sort of (at least, in her opinion they were only ‘sort of’, Chandler would argue otherwise) important things about her first ghostly companion.
Relationships: Heather Chandler & Veronica Sawyer
Series: Heather Ghost-ler [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1654477
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	Postmortem

**Author's Note:**

> I’m so sorry

Veronica knew a total of three sort of (at least, in her opinion they were only ‘sort of’, Chandler would argue otherwise) important things about her first ghostly companion.

  1. Chandler still tried to command the room, even if the only (living) person who could see and hear her was Veronica. It miffed her every time Veronica’s parents, or the students and staff at Westerburg, for that matter, ignored what she was saying. It didn’t help her case that the only things she could interact with were light switches. And so, it came to be that whenever Chandler wanted attention, and Veronica was ~~ignoring her~~ busy, she flickered the lights quickly. At the very least, Chandler had the sense to only do this at Veronica’s house, when she was _alone_ , but it was still annoying. It was all jokes on her, however, when she realized that the aggressive flickering of the lights didn’t even faze Veronica, who had spent a summer at sleep-away camp in a cabin with a constantly flickering light, no matter which position the switch was in. Chandler ended up leaving the lights alone after that.
  2. She couldn’t stray very far away from Veronica. No, literally. They had discovered this the first time Chandler had materialized, in Veronica’s bedroom, and tried to stomp out the door in a fit of anger. Veronica was only sitting on her bed, not even that far from the door, but Chandler had stopped as if a forcefield was keeping her in. This fun fact meant that Chandler still got to “attend” Westerburg every day, much to her bitching and moaning (She was dead, goddamnit! Why should she still have to go to school?!). At the very least, Chandler had the ghostly courtesy to stand outside the bathroom while Veronica was showering or using the toilet. More often than not, Chandler spent the time waiting for Veronica holding Kurt and Ram by the necks so they couldn’t peep. She would hold them by the collars, but, as she so often _loved_ to make fun of them for, they wore nothing but socks and boxers—their dying clothes.
  3. Ghosts, too, had good and bad days. Good days entailed an opaque Chandler who still, sometimes, managed to convince Veronica she was alive and just had an interesting choice in wardrobe (her pajamas) when exiting her house. Good days were bearable. Bad days were worse for everyone involved, which ended up being all three ghosts and Veronica most times. On Chandler’s bad days, she would waver between translucent and barely visible, and the drain cleaner would pour out of her lips and drip down her chin. On her worst days, Chandler wouldn’t show up at all (though these days were the hardest to gauge, as the ghosts could just choose to not materialize whenever they felt like it). All it took to turn a good day into a bad (or worst!) day was a set of serious emotions, like anger or sadness. Veronica could deal with Chandler on her good days, even her worst days, but her bad days were terrible. All Chandler’s bad days managed to do was make Veronica feel even more like shit than she already did, and it _especially_ didn’t help when Kurt and Ram continuously attacked Chandler on those days, driving her further and further into her bad mood. 



Eventually Kurt and Ram materialized, after J.D. killed them, and the quiet sense of agreement to leave each other alone that was shared between Chandler and Veronica was promptly thrown out the window. Veronica lost many nights of sleep over listening to Chandler argue with Kurt and Ram over shit that, honestly, shouldn’t even _matter_ to them anymore now that they were dead. They only ever stopped when Veronica snapped at them, but she didn’t have the energy to do that all the time.

Time moved on, as it always did. Eventually the deaths of Chandler, Kurt, and Ram became sad memories, towards the end of their senior year to be specific. Now, one single, sweet, _final_ week until graduation, the ghosts haunting Veronica decided to stop bickering and let her sleep properly. How kind of them, considering she knew they would resume the useless arguments almost as soon as she accepted her diploma. It was the Saturday before graduation when Veronica woke up into a Chandler bad day, and for once, Kurt and Ram had made themselves scarce.

“Heather…?” Veronica mumbled, pushing herself to sit up in bed. “Are you okay?”

“Do I fucking _look_ okay?!” Chandler snapped, and she wavered out of sight for a moment.

Veronica frowned. Already off to a bad start.

“Okay, I see you’re mad—“

“Mad? _Mad?!_ ” Chandler stomped a foot. “I’m fucking pissed as all Hell!”

“Was it something Kurt and Ram did? Because, I hate to break it to you, but I don’t know what you three do while I’m sleeping.” Veronica thought for a moment. “Actually, I don’t think I want to know.”

“No, it wasn’t fucking _Kurt_ and _Ram_ ,” Chandler snarled. 

“Heather, I can’t help you unless you tell me what the problem is,” Veronica said. “Communication, remember?”

Chandler folded her arms and tapped a foot. The longer this went on, the more opaque she became. Veronica was admittedly glad that forcing Chandler to slow down and _think_ was calming her down. Her eyes took in the entirety of her room while she waited for Chandler to speak, and her gaze landed on the protective bag (like the ones they covered prom dresses in at the mall) covering her graduation robe.

“Jesus… I can’t believe there’s just one more week until I graduate and never have to see Westerburg again,” Veronica said.

Chandler stopped tapping her foot, and she became translucent before Veronica could blink. Ah.

“Yeah, _wonderful_ for you,” Chandler said. “I’m sure you’ll have _so much_ fun leaving shitty little Westerburg and living the _rest_ of your natural life out there in the world.”

Veronica’s gaze softened. “Heather, are you sad that you can’t graduate?

If she was alive, what was currently happening to Chandler would be described as shaking. Now, though, it just looked like rippling, like someone had skipped a stone over a flat lake.

“I fucking guess so! It’s not like _you_ would care,” Chandler sneered. “Clearly you don’t since you went out of your way to _murder_ me.”

“Heather, I told you before, _J.D._ was the one who—“

“You think I give a shit about fucking _J.D._?!” Chandler yelled. Blue pooled at the corners of her lips. “This isn’t about him! This is about _me_!”

“I never said it _wasn’t_ —“

“I’m only _seventeen_ , Veronica!” Chandler exclaimed, bulldozing her way through Veronica’s statement. “I was supposed to graduate this year! I was supposed to get my shitty little diploma and leave this shitty little town and never see any of these shitty little people again!”

“What about the Heathers?” Veronica asked.

“We were supposed to leave together! There’s _nothing_ good for us here! Don’t you fucking see that?!” Chandler took to pacing at the foot of Veronica’s bed, and her form wavered dangerously between opaque and mostly transparent. “I’m only _seventeen_ …” She stopped. “I’m only seventeen, and I had the _rest_ of my life ahead of me! I was supposed to get _married_ , maybe have some kids, get a _job_! Now I can’t do any of that! I can’t do any of that because you _killed_ me and I’m _stuck_ here and I can’t just fucking _move on_!”

“Heather—“

“I just wanted to _graduate_ , Veronica,” Chandler whispered. “I was _so close_ to never having to see this town again. I was _so close_ to having my freedom. I was _almost_ happy.”

“I’m sorry,” Veronica murmured, fiddling with her hands. “I’m so sorry, Heather.”

Chandler rounded on her, back to snarling. “It’s too fucking late for ‘I’m sorry’!” The blue began to dribble over her chin, choking her again, choking her even in death. “It’s too late for everything! I was supposed to _graduate_! I was supposed to _be_ someone _important_!” Large tears accompanied the cleaner. “I was supposed to leave Sherwood behind, but now I _can’t_! And it’s _all your fault_! You did this to me, you fucking bitch! You ruined me!”

“Heather, if I could take it all back, I _would_ ,” Veronica stressed. “You know that, I’ve _told_ you that.”

Chandler didn’t talk anymore, simply just standing and allowing her tears to run down her cheeks. She shot a venomous glare at the floor. Through some inner turmoil Veronica wasn’t privy to, Chandler’s tears increased until she was loudly sobbing. The drain cleaner fell from Chandler’s mouth to the floor, but it didn’t pool up or collect in any other way. All there was was sobbing for an impossibly long moment before Chandler’s form wavered aggressively and dissipated. She left Veronica alone with a heavy and _incredibly_ guilty heart.

“Hey, uh… Veronica?” Kurt asked when he materialized a minute later.

“What do you want, Kurt?” Veronica snapped.

“Heather’s pretty upset.”

Veronica sighed and looked to her graduation robe again.

“I know, Kurt. I know.”


End file.
